Saw this small butterfly on a plant in my backyard. It’s only about 1/2 inch long. Need to research what kind it is.

Loving this butterfly! With our picture window view out to our backyard, it is easy to spy butterflies sipping on our lantana! Of course swallowtails move so slow and stay around for several minutes, I can always get good photos of them feeding!

Just happened to see this beautiful butterfly in my backyard today!

Two years ago we saw migrating Monarchs nectaring on these white flowers. We were so happy to see them again in the same place today! There were at least 300 on these bushes that grow along this creek bed. Mostly they were resting and nectaring as there was a south wind blowing about 20 mph. A cold front is headed this way, in about 4 days, with a north wind to push them on to Mexico where they are migrating for the winter. It’s always amazing to see them in such great numbers.

My Frostweed is in full bloom! So I was thinking just yesterday, why am I keeping this 8 foot flower(weed) growing in my yard? The flowers opened a couple of days ago and nothing was on it. I had just about decided even though I had been told that this flower is a butterfly(in particular Monarchs) magnet that it just wasn’t meant to be for me! Today I casually took a look and it was covered with all kinds of bees, flies, tiny flying bugs and a few small butterflies. So I started taking pictures and all of a sudden a Monarch appeared! I was so happy and got lots of pictures while it fed on the flowers. Hopefully this beautiful Monarch will be winging its way to Mexico tomorrow! Scroll to the bottom of this post to see the Monarch pics.